AWS Config vs AWS Service Catalog: What are the differences?

Introduction: AWS Config and AWS Service Catalog are two AWS services that serve different purposes. AWS Config is a service that enables users to assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of their AWS resources. AWS Service Catalog, on the other hand, allows organizations to create and manage catalogs of approved IT services that can be used by teams within their organization.

1. Scope and Functionality: AWS Config focuses on providing a comprehensive view of the configuration state of AWS resources, tracking changes, and evaluating resource compliance. It helps users assess resource configurations against desired configurations, detect and react to changes, and troubleshoot issues. In contrast, AWS Service Catalog focuses on enabling organizations to control and manage the offerings of IT services available to their teams. It allows administrators to define, provision, and manage a variety of IT resources, including virtual machines, databases, and applications, making them available to users in a self-service manner.

2. Automation and Standardization: AWS Config primarily focuses on monitoring and evaluating resource configurations, automating compliance checks and providing a history of configuration changes. It doesn't directly address automation or standardization of resource provisioning. In contrast, AWS Service Catalog offers capabilities for automation and standardization. It allows administrators to define reusable AWS CloudFormation templates and deploy resources consistently and repeatedly. This helps ensure that resources are provisioned in a standardized manner across teams.

3. Management and Approval Workflow: AWS Config doesn't provide specific management or approval workflows for resource requests or provisioning. It is primarily focused on configuration monitoring and evaluation. AWS Service Catalog, however, provides features for defining and enforcing management and approval workflows. It allows administrators to control who can access and use specific products within the catalog and define approval processes for resource provisioning requests. This helps enforce governance and control over the deployment of IT resources.

4. Usage and Self-Service: AWS Config doesn't directly provide a self-service interface for users to provision resources. It is more focused on configuration monitoring and compliance. AWS Service Catalog, on the other hand, is designed to enable self-service provisioning of resources. It provides a user-friendly interface where users can browse the catalog, view available products, and request the provisioning of resources. This helps promote agility and self-service capabilities within organizations.

5. Billing and Cost Allocation: AWS Config doesn't directly provide features for billing or cost allocation. It is primarily focused on configuration monitoring and evaluation. AWS Service Catalog, on the other hand, provides capabilities for cost allocation and budgeting. It allows administrators to associate costs with different products within the catalog, helping organizations track and allocate expenses related to IT resource provisioning.

6. Integration with Continuous Delivery Pipelines: AWS Config doesn't have built-in integrations with continuous delivery pipelines. It provides APIs for programmatic access to configuration and compliance data, which can be leveraged to integrate with custom automation workflows. AWS Service Catalog, however, provides built-in integration with AWS CodePipeline, enabling organizations to use continuous delivery pipelines to deploy products from the catalog. This helps automate the deployment of resources and applications.

In Summary, AWS Config focuses on configuration monitoring, compliance evaluation, and troubleshooting, while AWS Service Catalog focuses on creating and managing catalogs of IT services, enabling self-service provisioning, and enforcing governance and control over resource deployments.